Hornbills win T20 in nailbiting match
The Hornbills are the winners of the Limpopo T20 league after the team won a nailbiter of a final played on April 21 in Polokwane.
The team played two matches last Sunday. In the semi-final against the Polokwane Thunderbolts the Hornbills managed to advance to the final by winning the match by 53 runs. Dean Conradie scored 58 runs and Richard Atherstone was the player of the match. Christopher Atherstone, an all-rounder, bowled three overs with ten dot balls and at an economy of 5.33 runs per over. He only managed to score one run off two balls with the bat.
In the finals of the tournament later that day, the Hornbills faced Nagarseth Cricket Club and was the second team to bat chasing a score of 182/10 after 19.5 overs. Christopher took three wickets in four overs and bowled 16 dot balls at an economy of 6.75 runs per over. “A highlight for me was bowling a maiden wicket on the sixth over of the game which broke the back of the opposition’s batting after they got off to a very good start,” says Christopher, who won the player of the final and bowler of the final award.
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“The deciding moment of the match came when we had to face the bowlers from Nagarseth. We needed 50 runs from the last four overs,” explains Christopher. “Eventually we needed 43 runs in 24 balls and just after I came to the crease we lost a couple of wickets.”
He came out swinging hitting three sixes and three fours, winning the final for the Hornbills in the last over with a beautiful boundary when they needed four runs off four balls to win the tournament. “I took a six-year break from cricket but it is great to be back on the pitch and on Sunday I will be in action again in the Nirvana Premier League in Polokwane,” says Christopher. He was drafted by Nagarseth Cricket Club as a wild card player.
